Developer's Blog #4: Uncreatively Titled, Because It Covers A Lot of Topics

Next Patreon Mini-Update: January 31! In two days!

Mini-Update Length: 190k words, includes the first bit of Chapter 7.

New Playthrough Length: Around 50k

The next update is significantly smaller, but I wanted to make sure Patrons still have something new to enjoy when Chapter 6 goes live for everyone else (otherwise, I think it would be kind of like watching others eat a candy bar when you already devoured yours). There won’t be any new revelations or jaw-dropping moments in Chapter 7’s intro, but you’ll get to talk some with K (which has been a looooong time coming, I know).

Speaking of K: it’s official.

K’s romance is now only pursuable if you turn back for the dogs in Chapter 1. It wasn’t how I intended to initially implement their route, but I’m finding that the best laid plans in interactive fiction often need to be reworked. (To give people some idea of how my expectations didn’t align with reality, Chapter 6 was supposed to happen in Chapter 4. And Nick being in Button’s head was a last-minute addition, believe it or not.)

To the five people that wanted K’s route to remain open: I truly apologize. It was very difficult for me to decide to give readers less freedom, because I aspire for Mind Blind to be a game that doesn’t limit you for random choices. In the end, I didn’t feel that K’s romance would be very good if Button only meets them in Chapter 2. And if I don’t feel that I can do something well, and that it might take time from me doing other things better (like K’s “early-meeting” romance route), then I’d rather not do it than present something that’s simply not that good.

Close friendship is still fully possible with K, however, as you’ll be spending a lot of time together now that they’re your partner! But I feel at this point, players should have some idea of which romance they want to pursue. Maybe the routes aren’t locked in yet, but Button should at least be in the “intrigued” stage. (Even if you never openly flirt! Flirting is not necessary to initiate the romances.)

Deciding on an RO doesn’t work, however, if it’s possible that Button only met one of the love interests briefly in Chapter 2. Especially since it’s not obvious that K will accompany Glitch to the hospital, and thus there’s no way for players to intuit how to maximize their K exposure. Whereas if Button meets K in Chapter 1 and is interested in them, getting a ride with Glitch is the logical progression because it’s a chance to interrogate Glitch about K’s egregious behavior in pretending not to be a Ment (heh). Which ride offer triggers first reflects the romance you’ve been thus far aiming for (so Gray will call first if you have a crush on him, but Glitch’s text will happen if you have a good relationship with Glitch OR you met K that morning).

(Early introductions of ROs doesn’t apply to Noh, because Noh is a different beast altogether. In fact, I would strongly encourage people not to attempt to romance Noh on their first playthrough. Better yet, don’t romance Noh at all. Noh is a jerk.)

Retroactively closing K’s route presents complications, of course. Chapters 4 and 5 need to be re-written and coded so that non-dog-route Buttons don’t develop a crush on K. Button can still find K attractive, but there’s no emotional blossoming. I contemplated leaving Button’s crush in-tact and having K simply not return it, but ultimately decided that doing so was unfair and misleading to players who could be confused as to why a character clearly meant to be an RO didn’t return their affections. So, I’ve spent these last few days tweaking and deleting and rewriting, and hopefully the end result will be better than the original.

In non K-related news (K got a lot of news today, because K is Special like cereal):

Tomorrow, I’ll be posting the final poll for Button and The Cupid Calamity. It’ll include the two winning tropes of the prior poll (Only-One-Bed and Soulmate AU), as well as tropes you recommended in the comments! The winning trope will be used in a Valentine’s Day IF Short (to be released in the middle of next month). Poll winners K and Gray (whoops, I guess this news is somewhat K-related) will have their routes of Button and The Cupid Calamity released for everyone initially, with Sally, Glitch, and Rosy having their routes added for Patrons over the coming months.

I reckon if I write enough Holiday IFs, I can eventually rewrite and release them as DLC for Mind Blind once the game gets published. I do love writing these side ficlets because:

1) They contribute to the main story’s world building (see: the potential return of Mr. Snodgrass from Button and The Santa Scam in Mind Blind’s latest chapter)

2) They reinforce character backstory and development, letting me experiment with how Mind Blind’s cast respond in varied circumstances. Which, in turn, helps me deduce how they’ll react to things in the main story.

3) They’re just really fun to write. Ficlets let my brain take a break when needed by focusing on a different scenario, while still maintaining my creative momentum for Mind Blind’s world.

I’m still hammering out February’s Patreon Schedule, but it’ll definitely include the rest of Chapter 7 and most likely part of Chapter 8. Tentatively: Chapter 7 will be released for Patrons in early February, followed by Button and The Cupid Calamity, and then the first part of Chapter 8 in late February (with Chapter 7 being released as part of the Public Demo at the same time).

It’ll be a lot of writing, but Patreon has given me enough days off that I truly think I can do it (and still have time to sleep, don’t worry!).

And on a final, more serious, note:

Thank you.

Thank you for your financial support, which is allowing me to spend time doing that which I love most in the world—write.

Thank you for enabling me to share my stories, for providing your feedback, and for caring about Mind Blind’s world and characters.

Thank you for laughing at my corny jokes.

I never expected my Patreon to have over 300 supporters. Never imagined that I’d in a place where I could call into work the day before the demo drops and say “I’m taking today off, because I have a writing deadline, and Rosy and Nick need more banter!”

You are making my dreams possible. For that, there’s not enough “thank you’s” in the world.

But still . . . Thank you.